ch381-ch400 · 397-ch397

Chapter 397: About the World Tree

"First time I've ever been in a bank's private room."

"Me too."

The first order of business was depositing the payment at the bank.

The bank is a stone's throw from the branch, but with Mia-san alone it would be dangerous, so Kasumi-san decided to accompany her.

Since a male escort would be better, Soushi and I went along too.

When Kasumi-san asked for a private room right off, and the branch manager asked "And these three?"—"Their escorting adventurers," she said—and the bank staff's reactions were something to behold.

Afterward, they apparently accepted it once they learned what was in the attaché case Mia-san carried.

The money-counting machine they'd brought out in front of us counting through stacks of one million yen, over and over—that was magnificent.

A good thing to have seen.

"Ah, welcome back. We finished the leveling."

"You guys, it was 50 million. You should've come with us."

We rejoin Aikawa in the surface-side meeting room.

Kasumi-san rented it to get everyone's information aligned.

Aikawa stayed in the dungeon supervising the vampire girl and the delinquent girl's leveling, so she missed the 50 million.

"How far did they get?"

"Both of them hit 15, apparently."

"Huh? Off three golems?"

From 8, I thought they'd get to 13 or so......

"Well, they're Floor 40 Lock Golems. I think all three had quartz inside."

They'd brought back three Rock Golems from the Manticore's room.

When we leveled Soushi and the others before, I remember the copper golems leveling faster than the sand golems—so thinking "better than sand," we picked rock golems.

Sure enough, the hypothesis holds: Lock Golems give more EXP than Sand Golems.

But all the way to 15, huh.

If they take their jobs tomorrow, the delinquent girl won't need to worry about exams anymore, will she?

No—stats up, memory up, but it's meaningless unless you actually study.

I'd better study with the intensity of moving into the dungeon, myself.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's begin—please take your seats."

"Huh? Isn't Mia-san coming?"

"She's reportedly gotten straight to work. Shall we start with that side of things?"

That side, is it...... Is there something other than 'Blue Ocean'?

"The 50-million-yen weapon commission? Well, I can guess...... The silver sword from before, right? Weapons for the other members too, making it 50 million. Haaah."

Aikawa's sigh is understandable.

"Yes. It seems they went all the way to Akita's new dungeon and actually tested it against Wraiths. Mia-san's sword had the best effect, so they came to order weapons for Kinoshita-san and Furuta-san too. And there were detailed specifications for the 'Sword Saint' one."

Length, weight—did something bother them?

Different material means even the same length can feel lighter, after all.

And what will Yukiya-san do?

You can't make a katana out of silver, right?

So long as it's katana-shaped, enhancement works, so maybe that's fine?

But whether you'd call THAT a katana......

"If it works on Wraiths, that means it works on the Lich."

"Yes. But Mia-san is busy with the new dungeon right now, and for her free time she wanted to prioritize making Anego-san's crowd their armor—she refused once, saying she couldn't manage it......"

"Got clubbed by a stack of bills, huh."

Kasumi-san nods at my words.

"Work priority. And it seems to include hush money for the fact that it's Lich countermeasures. What's more, expecting to be refused from the start, they apparently brought it in cash."

Overwhelmed by the impact of the cash pile, Mia-san was bulldozed......

And with hush money on the table, maybe that's why she's not here right now.

"Is Anego-san's crowd all right?"

The ant dungeon Mia-san's group is currently conquering is famous for its high difficulty.

Narrow corridors, a maze-like cave—you have to push deeper and deeper into the ant nest, and the ants themselves are formidable foes.

From Floor 20 on, magic-casting ants appear and the difficulty spikes.

No dodging in a narrow corridor, after all.

They'd want armor sorted as soon as possible.

"Yes. They've finished the Floor 20 conquest and it's a natural stopping point, so we're thinking of moving them to another dungeon. Frankly, I don't want them going to that dungeon's Floor 30. Fortunately, Chiba has new dungeons to spare."

The ant dungeon's Floor 30 is the King Ant, the one that sprays acid over a wide area.

It's not a magic attack, so 【Magic Shield】 can't erase it—go wrong and a single hit could wipe the whole party.

Its hard carapace deflects bullets too—worst possible matchup for the SDF.

Word is that plenty of people died there in the dungeon's early days.

Dungeons with insect-type monsters as the mainstay are all supposedly nasty, but the ants are rumored to be nasty even among those.

Incidentally, the Queen Ant on Floor 40 reportedly flies.

A flying ant, in other words.

"Well, once their gear's sorted they can resume the survey where they left off. Which dungeon will they do next?"

The Chiba branch has 30-plus Triple-Rank adventurers out surveying, but since they're split into two teams, there are still plenty of spare new dungeons.

Other branches seem to assign one dungeon per party.

Though apparently from next month, Double-Rank teams will be slotted in beneath them.

Once Triple-Rank adventurers confirm a dungeon is safe, academic surveying by non-adventurer specialists begins.

The Double-Ranks serve as their escorts.

In Chiba, the only Double-Ranks are us and Thousand Leaf—so how is that going to work?

And we're busy with entrance exams ourselves.

"That depends entirely on Anego-san's crowd. I only just told them to choose their next dungeon. The airport dungeon and the World Tree dungeon are still out of reach but...... Ah, that reminds me—there are several things I should pass along about the World Tree."

Oh—the thing I saw on the net yesterday?

"The MP recovery potion? Amazing. Grrrk! If it weren't for the tests, we'd be racing to Floor 30 right now—"

Aikawa kicks herself.

"You knew, then. The Association has received an official report from the European HQ in Belgium."

"HQ? Wasn't the Adventurer's Association HQ in the UK?"

"The one in Belgium is the EU Adventurer's Association HQ. The overall HQ is in London, so the UK is correct."

I see—confusing, that.

Dungeon time is synced to standard time, which sits in the UK.

That's how I'd remembered it, and I wasn't wrong.

What I mean by "dungeon time": there are skills you can use only once a day, and the time they refresh is 0:00 standard time—9 AM in Japan.

Incidentally, there are also skills usable once an hour, once a week, once a month, and even once a year.

Since the refresh is at 0:00, use your once-a-day skill at 23:59 and it refreshes immediately, letting you use it twice.

A once-a-month skill used on the last day of the month works again the next day—same for a once-a-year skill on New Year's Eve.

Weeks run Sunday through Saturday.

Since calendars also vary by religion and country, there are countries where those jobs don't appear, apparently.

For a skill I know: the fortune-teller lady said 【Fortune-Teller】 can use its skill that divines a full year's fortune once a year.

【Divination】 gets harder the further you look—a year ahead can only be attempted once a year, or something like that.

"So, about that official report?"

"First: even in the 30s floors, the World Tree's trunk is inside the wall—but the area where the leaves grow sits ABOVE the upper wall. Plucking them directly seems impossible."

"Ehhh—so going deeper is pointless, then?"

Aikawa is startled, then crestfallen, busy all at once......

"No, and here's the thing—the leaves apparently fall from above. The drop rate, shall we say—the rate they fall and are found—is higher the deeper you go. Also, no reports of anyone reaching the 40s floors yet, so the height limit might be relaxed there."

Right—the Floor 40 boss flies, so the upper wall must be quite high there too.

"Does that mean you can pick them up on Floor 1?"

I mean, if the trunk is within arm's reach, maybe there's a chance......

"Yes. In overseas World Tree dungeons the information is already out, and even non-adventurer civilians are flocking to the dungeons to grab World Tree leaves. Since fights are breaking out over the leaves, we're told to be careful. And: in the 30s floors, fools show up trying to shake the tree to drop the leaves—they're to be taken into protective custody immediately."

There are really idiots like that out there (deadpan).

"What about the MP recovery potion? It definitely exists? What about how it's made......"

I'm getting "ah, right" looks, so let me change the subject.

"There too, staff at the German, French, and other branches have actually confirmed their MP recovering. As for the method, it requires the 【Blending】 skill learnable by 【Pharmacist】 and the like."

"Hmm—so even if we pick some up, we can't make it on the sly. Could Soushi's 【Cooking】 manage it?"

I don't think any of the Triple-Rank production ladies have 【Pharmacist】.

As for Soushi......

"You're not short on MP right now anyway, are you? If it runs low, come home and rest."

A reasonable point.

That's true, actually.

Return by 【Gate】 and rest on the surface—that recovers it.

Soushi's 'fujutsu' consumes max MP, so MP recovery is meaningless for him......

Huh?

What happens if you drink an MP recovery potion WHILE charging?